A tough test for the Vatreni in their first match of 2026 in Orlando, but they came away with the win after a weird start to the game with Colombia scoring early in the 3rd minute. Their lead didn’t last long as Vušković responded just three minutes later, scoring from outside the box. It took a deflection, but it went in, that’s all that matters.
Player ratings:
Luka Vušković – 7.8
Played a great game, solid defensively beside Erlić and Pongračić and stepped up with the goal. Deservedly Sofascore Player of the Match.
Marco Pašalić – 7.8
Constant threat on the wing, showed his flair and created a couple big chances. Delivered the corner for the second goal.
Dominik Livaković – 7.4
Good response after the early goal, settled in and made a couple big saves.
Igor Matanović – 7.2
Strong presence up top and scored the game winner, getting on the end of Pašalić’s corner to put Croatia ahead.
Petar Sučić – 7.0
Very composed in midfield, his long ball accuracy is insane and he looks like he will be a top midfielder one day.
Petar Musa – 6.7
Very unlucky off the bench, hit the woodwork twice and just couldn’t catch a break in the second half.
A good first match of 2026 for the Vatreni overall.
Final thoughts:
Play Marco Pašalić more. Play Petar Musa more. Doesn’t matter if they’re both in MLS. Luka Vušković is ready to be starting every game from here on out.
Nikola Moro put in a shift against Colombia fought hard alot to like about that players performance.
One issue that seems over and done with is the Luka Vuskovic issue.
It is over. Dalic is smart and he has no choice but to start Vuskovic at WC.
Going into these friendlies, among all Bundesliga defenders, Vuskovic is second in total aerial duels won, first in percentage of aerial duels won, first in goals scored, first in percentage of all duels won . . . The list goes on. He is a top defender in the Bundesliga. Period. It is a tough, physical, top five league.
Then he played very well against Colombia. And he is one of the few players who is likely to improve over the coming three months with further international experience.
On top of that, he is the future for Croatia in up to five World Cups. That matters.
Dalic may have had a Vuskovic issue to grapple with in October 2025.
There is no longer any issue.
Assuming full health, most of us doubt we go with three defenders . . .so it will be four at the back, with Vuskovic no doubt one of the starting four.
It is probably Stanisic on the right, Gvardiol on the left, and Vuskovic in the middle partnered with Sutalo.
The only issue for debate might be who best compliments Vuskovic in the middle.
You have DCC, Pong, and Erlic as options. While he has not had a great season, it seems Sutalo gets the nod for his speed, and also for his interceptions, dribbling skill, ball control, and passing ability.
Thank God.
If there is an ex-factor for us going deep, it would be from our young up-and-comers like Vušković and Baturina (who also looked very dangerous in the Colombia game).
The backline should be pretty stable with four at the back, but luckily we will be able to see more in this Brazil game (and our Belgium friendly in early June).
We can’t play three at the back with Erlić and Pongračić. Erlić is a solid CB but struggled to cover that big space on the right side when Marco pushed forward. We could try again with Gvardiol & Stanišić (in the Belgium friendly when we have Gvardiol back).
Curious to see which striker w we go with. We probably stick with Budimir, but I think he has a short leash. He’s a veteran, but he’s not one of the Dalić favorites.
Kovačić’s vs Petar Sučić in the starting eleven is another one.
I’m a huge Sučić fan, but Dalić is a big Kova fan so we’ll see what happens there.
Hypothetically, and I know we should have reasonable expectations, but let’s have some fun and look at a best case hypothetical . . . . If we go all the way to the finals, we can figure it would be nine games to win it all.
I say nine, because in the last two World Cups we seemed to play quite a bit of extra time totalling almost one full extra game. So let’s say it’s the equivalent of nine games from start to finish.
Those nine games are played in what looks to be about 33 days. That is brutal. . . . we are looking at one game in less than every four days if we average it all out. That is very tough on all the players, the midfield in particular.
That is a pretty tough run with all WC games played, every minute, at high intensity.
Will the extra depth help in this way? (Looking at Kova v Sucic issue and some of the other choices that exist . . . )
The ability to give Kova and Modric some rest and being able to lean heavily on youngsters like Sucic and Baturina without dropping in quality might, in the end, turn out to be absolutely critical. (We also have Moro and Jakic to shut down the opposition if we are lucky enough to get a good lead, . . .)
Perisic, Budimir and Krama could also all use a little more rest if we go deep, Gvardiol coming off an injury might need a little more rest than usual as he gets his conditioning up.
Having options at striker, same thing . . . I am warming to the possibility of starting Musa (basically at home for him in Texas) against England, and then coming back with Budimir with fresh legs.
Budimir is our top guy. His La Liga production is key, it cannot be argued with, but nine games in 33 days is rough.
So we probably all agree these problems are good “problems” to have. The options and depth might be a blessing if we go deep.
One of the questions I have, not knowing the other teams that well, is whether we have some players who might line up against one team better than they would against another? Is your starting lineup against England the same as your starting lineup against Panama? I know Ghana has the very dangerous, world class forwards. Maybe Petar Sucic as a strong, defensive midfielder, who covers a lot of ground, would be particularly suited to start that game against Ghana. Kova, on the other hand, plays against the English players and perhaps might be the better to start that England game. But I don’t know. Just throwing that out there.
Jaga still has a chance of going to the World Cup !!!!!!!!!!!
🎙️ Zlatko Dalić on squad selection:
“We don’t have many dilemmas about the players. These 26 here, plus Kovačić and Gvardiol, as well as those on standby and some from the U-21s. It would take something extraordinary for me to change the squad.
You know my stance; I stick with those who earned it, as long as they’re in form. If someone is completely out of form in the next two months, we won’t call him, but I don’t believe that will happen. I also hope no one makes a mistake and eliminates himself.”
He’s going to dump Majer for sure.
Anyone watch the Panama friendly?
They drew South Africa 1-1
They play them again on Tuesday
Hopefully the nose pickers are watching them and taking notes
MORONS
Ghana getting pumped 5-1 is TERRIBLE for Croatia
Means Austria’s video analysis identified weaknesses and areas to exploit
Job done
Now Ghana coaching staff have a chance to regroup and fix what’s wrong
Terrible
They aren’t going to let themselves get pumped for 5 goals every game lol
Nativity
Also Ghana missing Kudus who will be a terror vs whoever is LB or LWB
Gvardiol will handle him just fine
100% possible
But at what cost?
We don’t need Josko on 2 friendlies and 2 group games (where he won’t play 90 each game) getting injured again
Need to put Moro or Jakic there and tell them ur role is to stick next to him for 90’
Semenyo can create for himself but he thrives when others create for him
Shut down Kudus – shut down Semenyo
Stanišić will handle him just fine
No doubt about it. Stanisic shut Mbappe down in the past. He has shown great ability to shut down world class attackers.
Ivan Saranic another goal 😊
2-0 win
1 pt from promotion 😉
Poor Jaga
HNS Youth posted a Jaga interview
It looks like a hostage in captive being held for ransom
Jaga looks rightfully sad
Rightfully so
Poor Jaga
Dalic read Anonymous comments about Jaga and made a statement
🎙️ Zlatko Dalić on Adriano Jagušić:
“I hope he will break through. He’s mentally strong and understands everything. He needs time. He’s a very interesting player and I believe he will succeed.”
Great win by the boys.
U19 EURO Qualifier
Croatia 1 v Norway 0
Baric goalscorer in the 20th minute.
Six points from two matches, with France to come in 3 day’s time.
France plays the Swiss in a few hour’s time and unless they win we have qualified for the Finals in June.
I’m seeing a lot of praise for Musa and some for Matanović. Deservedly so. Musa has been good the last two international windows.
But who I want to talk about is Budimir. Am I the only one on here who doesn’t think he’s great for the national team? I think he definitely has good qualities and has had a few good performances for us, but I just don’t think he fits the way we play and is not what we need.
He has helped us in a few games with just being a hardworking big man. But for me, the lack of ability with the ball at his feet and being mostly useless outside of the box due to a severe lack in mobility kind of sours my opinion on him. I feel he’s a lot more of a system player where you have to play a certain way, swinging in cross after cross to him to really get anything like the results he gets in La Liga. I’m by no means trying to say he’s a bad player, I just think there are players who are a better fit for the way the national team plays.
For me, Ivanović is a good profile and needs to find form before the World Cup. Dalić likely thinks so as well as he’s been trying to justify calling him since his Rijeka days. Matanović and Musa also a bit more mobile and technical players. Find good pockets but can make some passes in the midfield as well when needed.
On another note, I saw someone say “this will be the last time we see Croatia play on the east coast of the US” on another thread and that the “east coast Croatians are cheapskates.” I actually am an east coast Croat and am going to both games but if you think about it logically, they chose to play BOTH games in Florida, when a lot of the east coast Croatians are up north. A game in New York (like what was initially rumored) would have been packed with Croatians.
The other factors are the way the games are set up. They are both midweek in the middle of the week. I had to take one of my full weeks of vacation as well as a couple extra days off to go to both games. The Colombians were also always going to really try to go to this game as it is in Florida rather than their match against France in Landover. The Brazil match will likely still be dominated by Brazilians but I bet it will be a SLIGHTLY better ratio than the Colombia match as the more fans are going to choose to go see us play Brazil rather than Colombia, it’s just the reality.
Thanks for reading my quarterly rant.
Musa looked good because he’s faster than Budimir and looks better on the counter.
Against teams like Ghana and Panama, Budimir is probably the safer pick.
This is the issue with Musa going to the MLS. The league is just not being taken seriously by any coach (proven by the fact that none of the top scorers even start for their teams).
He may actually be Mandžo-lite, but he’s still likely to come off the bench for us this tournament.
Matanović scoring complicates things too. I don’t think Matanović is ready for big minutes (despite his goal).
The good news is we seem to have a lot of depth and a lot of in-form players now.
So picking our starting eleven and wisely using our subs this summer will be extra important.
As a Northeast Croatian, I completely agree. Also with the WC coming up, I’d rather wait and save money and vacation time for the real thing than watch the Temu version of our team play.
BTW was so cool to see Luka supporting Marin the other day in Miami too. Always love to see our guys supporting each other !
England squad looks sad.
Who were half those starters today?
Bunch of nobodies and Jordan Henderson lol.
Something I just realized. Throughout a 27 year period, we’ve gone through only three starting goalkeepers.
Pletikosa 1999-2014
Subasic 2014-2018
Livakovic 2018-present
We’ve never had any top tier goalie for a top European club either.
Don’t forget Ladic. 1990-2000.
Never played outside of Hrvatska.
Musa has Manzis movement and one , two touch and shut on goal .He just rips it way harder. I don’t care if he plays on mars, let him keep going. Now we have too many strikers, this is hilarious. Vušković is something, can’t wait to see him and Gvardi hit the field together. I think we will shock in 2026. I just hope the English start propping up the trash talk. Their awfully quiet .
I am excited for Croatia. But that was only a friendly. Let’s be realistic. It will take a little luck, no big injuries, and consistent play that will get us to another semifinal. Hopefully, Coach Dalic will have the right combinations.
Good chance that we will meet Colombia in the round of 32 at the WC.
For this to happen both countries need to come second in their groups i.e. behind Portugal and England respectively.
Runners up in groups K and L meet in Round of 32.
It would be nice if we could win our group and get a third placed team.
It’s a good point.
There are a number of great teams, and some of them are drawing their talent from populations that are more than double ours, even 10x, 20x, and 30x larger than our population.
Let’s hope we are fully healthy, Dalic can find the right mix, we play at the top of our game, get some needed lucky breaks, and then we’ll see what happens.
It is, in any event, exciting to watch this team evolve. One year ago, most of us had no idea that Petar Sucic, Baturina, and Vuskovic would have stepped up as they have in Serie A and the Bundesliga. Three great young players, all who seem to be of good character, added to the NT for 2026.
I would like to see us get out of our group, and get a decent draw for the round of 32. I am hopeful for a win. From there, let’s see what happens.
Even Ghana, who lost 5-1 today, has some dangerous players, and could be tough on any given day.
Reasonable expectations. . .
Looking forward to it.
Important to remember that this was a friendly, in which Dalić experimented with the XI and our shape. Perišić going down holding his leg reminded me of why I hate these matches. Anyhow, I think Musa gets better service in a match that counts, both from the midfield and the wings, as they aren’t as taxed covering for an undermanned backline. That’s the last I’d like to see of 3 in the back until Gvardiol is fit, as it’s too much space for Erlić to cover. Was Šutalo available? It was also painful to be out-possessed by a team that is not very strong in the MF, and let’s be honest, James has been mailing it in for 10 years now. A W is a W, but much has to improve for this summer. I don’t care what happens vs Brazil – we knocked them out of a WC. Just try to build more chemistry and don’t get anyone injured.
Oops hit post b4. Anyway yeah Austria thumped Ghana today. I guess that’s good yeah?
Austria absolutely thum
A good win for the Vatreni.
Looking forward to the Brazil game.
For what it is worth, these are the current SOFIFA ratings for our defenders.
Some might find this of interest.
The first number is current overall quality of the player, the second is the player’s assessed potential.
There are only a few players in the world 90 or over at any given time.
For those who don’t know the system or don’t follow it, for example Modric was 91/91 at his peak rating, and is currently rated 84/84.
Right now for example, take Spain . . . . . Rodri is 89/89, Olmo is 84/85.
Gvardiol 85 / 88
Stanisic 79 / 82
Vuskovic 78 / 88
Sutalo 77 / 81
Jakic 75 / 75
Smolcic 74 / 78
DCC 74 / 74
Pongracic 73 / 75
Erlic 72 / 73
You know Croatia won when there are 31 comments the day after the match, and not 175.
LOL. There is some truth to it.
Human nature . . . people tend to post when they are pissed at someone or something . . .
Anyone have a link to a full match replay? I’d like to watch back the whole game
Uff.
You’d have better luck digging for gold.
ghana are absolute gouvna probably weakest team in our world cup group.
Losing 3-0 late in the contest, but I’m sure they’re “experimenting” in their match.
Don’t be fooled. Petar Musa was very unlucky not to score twice. He hit the woodwork twice which to be fair should have been goals. I suspect, though, that even if he did score people on here would say that this was against Columbia and not a harder squad. So you can’t always impress Hrvati easily when it comes to soccer to be fair. Columbia did prove to be a test, I had a strong feeling they would because they are the type of squad that play a very fast and high press style.
I don’t know that the rating Musa is quite fair. It’s only based on the fact that he didn’t score. But he had better better scoring opportunities than Matanović, to be fair. He had great positioning throughout the later part of the match. This put Musa in position to have better opportunities.
Matanović had a nice header but that was only because the Columbian goalie messed up and didn’t punch the ball away. So this could have just likely ended as 1-1 draw.
That said I still think I like both strikers and I still think we need 2 strikers up front and not just 1.
I am still thinking that 4-4-2 is the way to go.
We need to take three strikers or are we counting krama as a striker in that as well?
Leave luka sucic at home
We have enough midfielders to get it done
Budimir, moose, matanovic, and krama of course
Krama can be good but that all depends on the opponents.
He is very good as a supporting striker but that didn’t work out so well against Czechia who overpowered him. They were far too tall as a result he could not impose himself and was non present.
I think it all depends on the match up personally.
Krama would have probably done well against Columbia and potentially he could do well against Brazil. But these are friendlies and to be fair we have a good sense of what Krama can do at this stage…we need to see more of the youth here and what they can do.
And no I would not leave Luka Sučić home that’s a bad idea. Our midfield at this stage is in transition and Petar and Luka Sučić need to learn from Modric at this stage. So they both (as th best potential youth candidates in those respective positions right now) should be there.
If it were me, even though I tried to see something good in them, I saw absolutely nothing in both Moro and Fruk. If anything, leave them out.
Will the midfield choice come down to Luka Sucic or Lovro Majer?
If so, it might depend on how Majer plays against Brazil. Presumably, he will get the opportunity . . .
They have both had disappointing seasons in 2025-26.
I rate Sucic, if Krama goes down we need attacking midfielders
Ghana lost 5-1 to Austria.
It sounds like we created enough opportunities going forward, which let’s face it has been a struggle these past couple of years
That’s all promising
I think the mls boys have something to prove
So with mls pasalic on the right
Old man but still skilled Perisic on the left we can get some good crosses in
Musa is dangerous
Like others have said. We have the ability to crash the net
Gvardiol, Prince luka and musa or budimir there is enough presence there to contend with
We may not have the speed but we have the size that can cause issues for other teams
Let’s face it, the Moose , no excuuse, should have had another Brace in 45 minutes of play against a high rated World Cup opponent. He is averaging a Brace per 90 minutes in the MLS.
For Brazil, let Budimir start the first 45 and let Musa come on in on the 2nd half. Check and scrutinize the highlights against same competitor. Screw MLS quality talk. Let the best man win. Speed, Mario type Physicality/Attitude, positioning etc., etc.. My money is on the Moose.
iggy and his dog were raped in the sweltering summer of 93
As an aside:
1) If you missed it, nice and genuine comments from Serbia’s NT coach yesterday on why Croatia continues to be relevant and explains why and how they haven’t done the same.
2) Very funny how Italy got caught rooting for Bosnia. We know everyone does it, but it’s usually in the privacy of their locker room. For a nation that hasn’t seen the WC in a while, pretty arrogant to be rooting to play on the road (would these illiterates even find Bosnia on a map)?
Ajmo Bosnia!
1) Serb coach said that we are successful because we take full advantage in recruiting our diaspora, but he’s still missing the point.
While our diaspora are useful, our backbone has still been our Croatian born-and-raised stars (Boban, Šuker, Modrić, Gvardiol, and now Vušković). Serbia simply cannot produce stars like this.
2) I can’t ever cheer for Bosna.
They cheered and waved Turkish flags on the streets of Mostar when we were knocked out in Euro2008.
I’ll never forget that.
We’ve all bitched that we never replaced Mario Mandžukić in 8 years (yikes). While that’s true, this game is a reminder that the service from the midfielders during that time has left a lot to be desired.
In Musa’s first start with the team two years ago, he’d regularly make runs and got ignored and never got the ball. Same with the 1,000 other guys we tried upfront.
Even though Moose hit the post, look at the cross Marco provided. Outside of Luka and Perišic, who else could have provided such a pin-point pass?
Even on the corner kick, the swerve was perfect to let Matanović take advantage of his height. We haven’t been a threat on corners in quite some time (Dario Srna era).
I know Mario Pašalić is a stud with Atalanta (yes, I watch every week), but he’s not a starter on the NT. Whenever he starts in non-exhibitions, it’s safe to say we’ll be shut-out at halftime. Can’t score or provide service upfront. I appreciate everything Zlatko has done for the NT, but how many starts for Mario before he joins this conclusion?
Nice win for the boys. Up next Brazil.
PS where were our fans, ffs it was a yellow out.
Musa is a must. A good nose for goal. Good movement and good shot.
And has to be one of the fastest if not the fastest on the team.
We finally have a Striker with some damn speed!
So it’s Italy vs Bosnia
Dzeko doing his luka 40 year old stuff
I would love to see Bosnia beat Italy
Good win always nice to keep winning mentality, a few notes.
1- Marco pasalic again just keeps proving the lights aren’t too bright. That cross to Musa when he hit the 2nd post was what we miss.
2- Musa movements were good looks the part.
3- Stanišić looked uncomfortable on left.
4- Matanović looked good as well still prefer Musa.
One thing to note both games Vušković started he played in back 3. Pretty sure we won’t play 3 at back in WC, I could be wrong makes me think dalic doesn’t have him in mind for starting 11 come June.
Sutalo and D-CC both got no minutes against Columbia, again leads me to think they will start against Brazil and that will be pairing for central CB with Stanisic and gvardiol to the right and left of them come WC.
We didn’t even start our best players and looked better than Colombia. Livakovic is solid and after that game I have full faith in him still. The goal we conceded was lack of our centre backs not covering on the cross. Colombia is more of a threat than Brazil. I will say we looked sloppy in that second half and our crosses and passing percentage accuracy diminished. Defence wise we did scramble a bit. I got worried here and there with Stanišić holding the ball too long. He is such a fast and clever player but needs to play his position more and not take risks and go for sprints as often. Overall, a solid 7.5 performance. We shot back with 2 goals and Matanovic made the difference. I said it before and I’ll say it again. We don’t have a premier striker. We do have height and weight to push defenders in the 12 yard box for corners and crosses. Gvardiol, Matanovic, Vuskovic, Pasalic should all charge the box when we have a cross. That’s how we will score goals. That left foot of Perisic still works but he can’t do it all at his age.
The kits look decent. Nothing too special. I still love the 2018 black ones the most.
Italy and Bosnia in Zenica. This would be the biggest upset in history. A Bosnia victory would cause chaos all across North America and Italian football would be put in the grave. I think Bosnia has a chance.
Kosovo beating Slovakia with 5 shots on net and four goals is insane.
Let’s get the win against Brazil and beating two top southern American teams is a perfect start. Brazil dos possess more offensive threat but lack defending. They’ve really never had any solid defenders in the last several years. I guess that’s why you get beat 7-1 in a semi final in your home country.
Livakovic is someone I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to the goalie position. Yes he was very unlucky to have that ball go in, it was deflection off of Perisic and he had some decent saves throughout the game. He is solid shot stopper in most situations and helped us in so many tournaments. To be fair Dalic will never pick anyone over him so this conversation will not go that far.
However, there were times against Columbia he could have caught the ball on a cross rather than punch it out and this could have left our defence exposed against tougher opponents. He just doesn’t have the confidence to make these decisions in these moments that count. To me he has the look of a dear caught in the headlights. He really is like a frightened turtle in this sense it’s strange to me.
Look, I get it… this is at the world level stage and there is a lot of pressure. But man you have to have some confidence. I just don’t see that aspect in him.
Look, when you look at Manuel Neuer do you see the same look of someone scared. When I look at Livakovic it’s what I see in him, that look he gives is like….”man what am I doing here”….
I am not saying he is bad, he is a good goalie but it goes back to that conversation he and Modric have in that special and Modric saw it…his words to him were that his confidence is lacking.
What game were you watching? Don’t knock Liva, his punch outs were strong; they maybe looked unorthodox but the got the ball out of the box and out of a threatening position. His point blank stp against Diaz shortly after Diaz’s missed goal was incredible. I haven’t seen a save like that from close range by any keeper in a while.
I was watching the same game bud. I think a couple times he punched the ball out and he gave it to the opposition who if they were a stronger side would have put it away. It was in his own box. Against a team team like Brazil or France that is risky. He isn’t super confident on his role man.
Everyone says that adidas is going to be the better Jersey designer outfit. I don’t about that, if it is going to look like Columbia’s except Red, white and blue, with 3 racing strips on the sleeve, how unique, year after year, count me out as in agreement with the mob. Colombia’s jerseys are nothing to write home about and are traditional adidas mass production copycat design over and over.
The two naked chick logic is synonymous with Latin American Rumba culture, but I for one would not appreciate it on our jersey or find it reflective of our culture. That better not put that crap logo on our jerseys.
Be careful what you wish for in life. This may be a bust. Each to his own I guess. To the victor goes the spoils, or in this case spoiled.
Additionally, the purple jackets were an interesting royal touch, from a group who has played like kings for the last 12 years. Very fitting.
12:30
Luka too nonchalant with passing out of the back
This time gets rushed/intercepted and chance on goal (which he doesn’t do enough to recover)
It’s not the first time he was nonchalant out of the back – slow moving before passing – trying to bait the press – but in a real game those “lazy” passes need to be CLEANED UP as otherwise the opposition with intercept and go right onto goal
11′
Diaz chance (when he flopped for a penalty)
Luka over-committed (after Diaz got around Pero and shrugged off Marco)
If instead of flopping, he took another step, he would have had an open shot at net (bc Luka over-committed)
Needs to be cleaned up
It’s not just that he over-committed
Look at his weird/contorted body shape (leaning over but contorted) coupled with flat feet (after over-committing past the play)
He was doing that early in the Bundesliga season – needs to be cleaned up for good – as makes it impossible to re-start/being agile in different direction
Vlasic asking for a penalty in the 10′ after being swatted by Davinson Sanchez
Asking for a penalty in a friendly = top mentality
What’s up with Pero’s left hand ?
You notice he’s wearing two long-white sleeves shirt – right ?
But look closely – it looks like a cast on a few of his left fingers (and wearing the sleeves to kind of cover it up) or actually maybe a broken wrist
Anyone else notice it – look again closely
Yea I wondered what that was
The camera angles and fields for these friendlies have been dogshit. Watched a bit of France v Brazil too and it’s too fucking zoomed in or some shit? Couldnt even see the guy taking the corner lmao.Looks woeful.. complete dogshit.. can’t trust USA to do anything right.
And that’s before we get to them electing a fat rapist pedophile protecting war criminal too !
😀
I thought first half we looked a bit shaky in the defence, especially on our RHS where Erlic played and he did not get a lot of help from Marco Pasalic. Marco looked good in attack however defensively he needs to improve if we are going to play 3 – 5 – 2.
Livakovic did OK except trying to punch the ball a couple of times instead of catching it.
Vuskovic had a very good match as did Pongracic in defence.
Moro also played well in the midfield. I was a bit disappointed with Vlasic who got caught in possession on a couple of occasions due to lack of speed.
Luka Sucic did not impress when he came on for his short stint.
Not sure about 3 – 5 – 2 formation ? Colombia had some good chances as well.
We definitely look more dangerous going forward, but we also look weaker in the defence playing this formation. Last 15 minutes Dalic reverted to playing 4 at the back when Jakic came on.
Good win for confidence and also ranking points.
P.S.
Perisic (and Modric) already got Luka Vuskovic cupping (see his neck with at least three cupping marks)
That’s the first time he’s ever had cupping in his career
@Crnkovic
You still POSITIVE Vuskovic ain’t a striker 😉
Just watched the three goals (the first one is on Pong for standing their like a statue not picking up the guy running into the box and Perisic kicking it past Liva)
I must say – 10/10 for psychology in the anthem line-up – putting Luka strategically b/w the two shortest players Vlasic and Marco made him look like a giant amongst men – honestly very impressed someone came up with that – very smart
Barca here we come !
MLS is ranked 10th in the world while HNL is 18th. The level of play in HNL this year is the worst in recent memory. While one or two of the regular posters will always dump on MLS, the reality is that Marco Pašalic needs to start at right mid and Musa needs to be the first option off the bench at striker, assuming Budimir is the WC starter.
I can see why Vida turned down the unofficial talks about him becoming an assistant coach. He’d tell Zlatko he’s out of his mind for going back to a 3-man backline and he’d tell him to shut up, since he is so stubborn.
I would not have put in Luka at all. We all knew Colombia was going to be frustrated and hacking at the end, even in a friendly. What was the purpose of putting him in that situation and getting him injured.
Lastly, I have nothing negative to say about any of the players who all played hard, but what is it with Moro starting?
The purpose of putting Luka in for 10 minutes is to fulfil the contract – otherwise HNS won’t get a million for these two friendlies
I was unimpressed with Colombia.
They rolled out a solid lineup…but they don’t really play any other way than they do. No strategy. Once you adjust against them, they become less effective as the game goes on.
We were caught off guard by them early. But to be fair to us, we were also experimenting with a back three with three defenders who have never played with each other before.
But, as the game went on, we played the counter well. When Luka came on, we pretty much secured the win (and probably should have added a goal for ourselves at the end).
I can’t imagine what the score line would have been had we played Luka, Kova, Krama and Gvardiol this game.
I can’t see them beating us in the Round of 32 if we end up meeting them again.
It was only a friendly. The intensity would not have been the same. And why show everything you can do to a team you may play at the WC?
What about Moro? He played solid defensively
I think the friendly with Colombia, and Brazil, would have been better at the Los Angeles Coliseum regarding fan energy and attendance.
We would probably had more attendance at the first home game for Stipe Biuk.
Regarding Musa, you know those are going to fall 99 times in 100. Need his speed, energy, and timely positioning. Needed him to get the brace to silent the doubters tonight though. Hope Dalic gives him 50 minutes next game again to prove himself.
Doubt we’ll have as many chances in the next game..